Latest Event Updates

Its been a while. Despite not posting, building has been progressing. I had four weeks away from working on the plane. Its the first time I have struggled. I went overseas for work for 2 weeks then when I got back I was busy and for the first time I really struggled to go back and keep going. So I took a break. Slowly the desire returned and now I am back into it. It is really hard to keep positive and feel like you can overcome all the work you have to do. Any builders out there…..I know I haven’t finished, but I guess you gotta just keep doing little bit by little bit and reading BiPlane Forum to keep the desire going.

Check it out at…. http://www.biplaneforum.com It is such a wealth of information and a great community of helpful builders.

Now back to the wing.

Pictures first

The pictures here are of the current area I am working on. This is the wing walk. Normally you don’t have a wing walk on both sides however I am putting one in on both sides to assist passengers into the plane as they get in. The last photo with the words on it is a pic I annotated to ask a question on the Bi Plane Forum about how to round of the spar tips.

I am very close to completing the base wing. I just need to fit the wing walk ply, glue the wing bows then flip the wing and finish the underside fitting. Oh and fit the trailing edge. Should have that done by the end of next week. Getting close

Work continues on the lower wings. Some pics below. The early steps for the wings, following the Skybolt builders manual is loose fit ribs, loose fit butt rib fittings, butt rib, then start on the three ribs that have the drag/anti-drag wires running through the spars.

Once the crates were unpacked, I was able to get started on the wing assembly. I have started with prepping the two sets of lower wing spars. These are easier as they are symmetrical in the aerofoil shape the the spars are perpendicular to the fuselage – unlike the upper wing which has a 6.5 degree sweepback.

I have added the butt plates to the fuselage end and then laid the spars of the right lower wing into the spar racks. This takes a bit of time as you have to fit the ribs so that they slide onto the spars front and back, but primarily as you are making the wing exactly square on all planes. The spar centrelines have to lined up and the whole wing square.

Pictures below of the work to get to the ribs onto the wing spars. Next step will be to start glueing.

Butt Plate holes drilled

Drilling the iStrut holes vertically through the spar

Butt plates fitted

Tramelling to ensure the wing spars are square

the other measurement during trammelling

Finally the finished product…. the ribs are just sitting on the spars. Next step will be to start glueing.

Finally – after waiting 14 months, my wings (kit) finally arrived. I just need to finish of some metalwork I am doing on the horizontal stab and elevator, then they will be put aside for the wings. This will be fun

The good news is the wing kit leaves the US on the 8th of August. Until it arrives however, there is a number of things that I am trying to get finished off so I can focus on the wings when it gets here.

The horizontal stabiliser and elevator are out for media blasting and finish welding. They needed work as they are just starting to get surface rust just sitting in the garage bare and I want to get some primer on them. Thats what you get with humidity I guess.

I am now riveting the upper wing fuel tank. Should have that finished quite quickly but will wait to have it welded because I need to check the clearances in the wing and particularly underneath the tank to make sure the clearance of the drain/fuel line flanges are acceptable. I will build a drilling template also to locate the holes in the lower surface of the wing.

I am also still completing the second and last butt rib for the upper wing, which is different than a butt rib from the standard wing. This rib is a 1/2″ think rather than the standard 1/4″ and has the compression wood within it.

Finally I have been playing with the cabane struts, having been fortunate to scrounge some streamline tubing from a fellow builder in Canberra. Thanks Lou!!

Whilst I have not posted for a while and I am still waiting on my wing kit, I decided to have a go at some aluminium. In a previous post you saw the outside tank ends, but now onto something a little more substantial – the ribs and tank skin.

The plan is to make the ribs, fold the skin, bead the tank skin, drill and then match drill the ribs. Once I can cleco it together, I will then get the drains, fuel outlet and tank filler welded, before riveting and final welding. The welding and riveting will be in a separate post.

Step 1: The first thing I did was build the rib template to plans and fold the two outside tank ribs. See previous post.

Step 2: Make the four internal ribs. I used the same rib template to ensure the correct size. Then used a large hole cutter to make the holes.

One thing I learnt is make sure the hole cutter is locked and can’t move. I ended up putting a mark on the lock nut to ensure that it wouldn’t unwind and incorrectly enlarge the hole diameter. I learnt this fortunately on some scrap when figuring out how to work it. It un-did and I didn’t get a circle!!

Also note!!!!!!! In this picture above you can see both left facing and right facing ribs. This is not shown on the plans, but I have done that so that I can reach from each side when riveting the ribs to the skin when closing it.

I have had a go at working with aluminium for the first time. Working out quite well.. Right now I have three ribs mostly completed. Two inner ribs with a relief in the corners and one without the relief which will be on the of the ends for the tank. The relief is not cut in the ends as the corners will get welded.

Last thing to do is final sand the edges and then drill/cut the lightening holes with a flanging to finish. Then it will be onto the tank skin.